In His Grasp

The First "Moving In"

So beautiful, majestic, and looks magical. That's what I thought when I saw the picture of the house or maybe I can call it a small mansion on the sales site of one of the property agents on the internet at a very cheap price. At first, I thought the reason they sold it at such a low price was because of its location or even that this place had been a serial killer murder scene in the past, but I didn't find any evidence pointing to it while doing some research into the history of this Victorian styled house and also the locals didn't say anything about the things I suspected before. They just said that the previous owner of the house couldn't afford to take care of such a big house and that he was going to live with his son abroad.

The previous owner just said don't read or touch an old book that was kept in the house while I was bleeding. The weird thing why can't I read an old book when I'm bleeding? maybe he was afraid it would ruin a historical item for their family?

Then I offered to the owner that if the book was so valuable and perhaps his family's legacy, he could take it with him and his son even though I had bought the house and its contents. The old man refused and said that the book belongs to this house and must not leave this house and land. Strange.

I just nodded and escorted the old man when he was about to leave the house. Once again he emphasized, "Remember what I said before, never open, read, or even just touch the book when you are bleeding or dripping blood on the cover of the book!"

And today is the day I start living in my new house or I shall say my new small mansion I bought a year ago in this small village. Yup, a year ago. It's because this house needs some repairing and I decided for installing some modern features for this house is pretty old and also new floor, carpet, also new curtains, and internet for me to work. I am checking for any mistakes in the last time before the property agent left this place, also I asked them if they found or see something like an antique book or something like that when they did their job here and they only saw an old chest in the attic but they did nothing to open it because they have no keys of the chest. That's okay I'll check the chest tomorrow, perhaps there is a key inside the key box the previous owner gave me.

The clock showed 9 pm when I finished arranging my personal things in the bedroom, took out all my books from the boxes, and also arranged my painting tools in the room that I used as a library as well as my workspace and painting studio.

I decided to cook a fairly simple dinner as my body was tired and didn't want to have extra work for tomorrow morning with the dishes. but I feel like someone or maybe something has been watching me work since the sun went down a few hours ago. I don't want to put myself in an eerie thought so I just shrugging that feeling and ate my smoked beef toast in front of the unlit fireplace while watching some movie on my tab with a cup of hot chamomile tea. Then go to sleep.

This house is located in a secluded part of the village, so it feels so peaceful and calm. There was no blaring from heavy construction machinery, no honking from the busy highway at rush hour, no drunken screams, only the sound of leaves rustling in the wind and perhaps the sound of some wild fox living in the forest behind this house. But one night everything changed.